Comment by tlogan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tlogan | Hacker News Reader

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I'm very very surprised that Medium has issues and they needed to cut 50 employees. And sad. I was thinking they were doing quite well.

Now, I'm concern that there are other startups which have similar problems like Medium even if they are considered as success stories. So I'm not even sure which companies I should use as example of "this is how to run the startup".

What you think about following companies?

- Slack: maybe it is just a temporary hype?

- Uber & Lyft: maybe rides should be 100% more expensive?

- AirBnB: a lot of money is spent on fighting regulations - but elections are every 4 years and regulators will change...

- Dropbox: maybe it is the end of PC <-> cloud sync?

- Github: maybe it is just hype because they are have free option? Maybe large companies are not ready to source dev to github?

- Stripe: Maybe they have high valuation just because a lot of small startups are using them - but as soon as startups grow they move to cheaper systems?

Yes all valid concerns. You and I will get downvoted for even mentioning these companies in a pessimistic light but it doesn't make it less true.

Slack: used it at a hackathon and found it better than Facebook or Skype or whatever groups use to organize; happy that the club I joined recently as an officer is using it for communication

Uber & Lyft: haven't used it personally because public transportation is cheaper and I can wait, even though they were giving out free credit on my campus; I think carsharing is here to stay, especially if selfdriving cars become mainstream.

AirBnB: surprisingly cheap, found a $200 a night place in downtown LA for 6 people; I enjoy the concept of people sharing their homes and introducing tourists to local culture; however, some regulation is needed to protect both homeowners (from issues like squatting), customers, and renters -- no home should be used for the sole intent of renting to AirBnB and acting as a hotel.

Dropbox: I only use Google Drice so I can't say.

GitHub: hasn't this company been around long enough so that it isn't just hype -- anyhow they should find a way to stop burning so much money.

Stripe: I've heard their API is easier to use than competitors, and it seems they launched Atlas this year to diversify themselves from process payments to include business incorporation.

Github used to be a no-vc company, then they took a bunch of money and grew really fast. I do not know if they are profitable again, but this two part history is why people worry.

Uber & Lyft are NOT carsharing. Carsharing is when you let someone else use your car without you being needed.

> - AirBnB: a lot of money is spent on fighting regulations - but elections are every 4 years and regulators will change...

AirBnB have gotten stuck in some real regulatory problems worldwide that are going to manifest themselves this year. In London alone they could make $400m less than was expected. I don't see it ending well.

What do you think about Quora ?

Yahoo Answers without the Answers unless you succumb to the onboarding bait.

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